Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
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A fascinating look into a country deprived of...hair salons
When documentarian Liz Mermin heard that the organization Beauty without Borders was going to open a training school for
beauticians in Afghanistan the idea of documenting the experience must have proved irresistible. The slogan for Mermin’s finished
film, The Beauty Academy of Kabul, sums up the rich ironies in the subject matter: “After decades of war and the Taliban, the
women of Afghanistan need…a makeover?” and though Mermin’s movie never really provides an answer to that question (or why it’s
being asked in the first place), it is chock full of fascinating incongruities. Even without an attempt to explain what we’re seeing (or
why), Mermin’s film provides a fascinating peek at modern day Afghanistan and glimpses into the lives of its second class citizens
a/k/a its women. The film opens this Friday at the Music Box Theatre.
At just 74 minutes, Beauty Academy skimps on many of the questions that naturally arise from such a provocative topic. We don’t
learn much, if anything, of the background of the American instructors (other than the two Afghan expatriates who are returning after
having fled the country decades earlier), or the hows and whys of the organization bringing the school to the apparently beautician-
starved country. We get more on the Afghan students but though we see it time and again throughout the movie, no one talks
about the oddest contradiction of all: why women would spend hours having their hair permed and colored at the school only to have
it immediately flattened when donning the omnipresent burqas before heading back out into the streets and to their homes.
Mermin does start out with a welcome overview of the war torn history of the country and some very telling details about the
horrendously tough strictures put in place during the Taliban regime (in 1996, for example, they banned movies, TV AND music –
talk about hell on earth!). One of the first things to go, apparently, were beauty salons, which we find out the Afghan women kept
going in secret. Thus, when in August of 2003, after the rout of the Taliban, six hairdressers opened a beauty school in Kabul, no
wonder the women lined up for blocks to be among the first 20 chosen for training.
As the three month course continues we find out a bit about the teachers: Sima, who left the country to live in West Virginia 23 years
earlier and now has returned, Terri, a New Yorker and Patricia, the British accented head of the program. Patricia is the most
eloquent (she comments about the school after a few weeks in the country, “This is like an oasis in the middle of hell”) while Sima is
the most emotional (especially touching is her farewell speech before she returns to the U.S.). Interspersed are brief interviews with
the students who have apparently risked the wrath of their husbands to attend the school. Always, at the edge of the frame, are the
sullen, watchful men, suspicious of the women’s happiness, their American teachers, and crowding around the large uncurtained
windows of the school. Their disapproval is unspoken and overbearing – especially when given orders by the female American
teachers who don’t hesitate to speak their minds.
Then Debbie with the red spiked hair from Indiana arrives, and the film literally takes off. She immediately shakes things up,
challenging the complacent Afghan women in her opening speech, “It’s your job to set the new trends in hair styles!” and insisting
that Noor the school’s male manager curtain the windows for privacy. There are moments when Debbie’s know it all manner is tough
to take – her overbearing ways are easily interpreted as a prime example of Ugly Americanism. But the scales tip in her favor when
Debbie the pistol announces she isn’t about to let any man take away her driving privileges. The scene in which she zips around
Kabul with a car full of gleeful students oblivious to the derisive stares of the men she encounters is to understand the significance
of small victories which the salon represents.
Makes me long for a sequel also starring Debbie, this time demanding Afghan men set the new trends (of a different sort), and
named, appropriately – The Gay Bar of Kabul.
www.musicboxtheatre.com
beauticians in Afghanistan the idea of documenting the experience must have proved irresistible. The slogan for Mermin’s finished
film, The Beauty Academy of Kabul, sums up the rich ironies in the subject matter: “After decades of war and the Taliban, the
women of Afghanistan need…a makeover?” and though Mermin’s movie never really provides an answer to that question (or why it’s
being asked in the first place), it is chock full of fascinating incongruities. Even without an attempt to explain what we’re seeing (or
why), Mermin’s film provides a fascinating peek at modern day Afghanistan and glimpses into the lives of its second class citizens
a/k/a its women. The film opens this Friday at the Music Box Theatre.
At just 74 minutes, Beauty Academy skimps on many of the questions that naturally arise from such a provocative topic. We don’t
learn much, if anything, of the background of the American instructors (other than the two Afghan expatriates who are returning after
having fled the country decades earlier), or the hows and whys of the organization bringing the school to the apparently beautician-
starved country. We get more on the Afghan students but though we see it time and again throughout the movie, no one talks
about the oddest contradiction of all: why women would spend hours having their hair permed and colored at the school only to have
it immediately flattened when donning the omnipresent burqas before heading back out into the streets and to their homes.
Mermin does start out with a welcome overview of the war torn history of the country and some very telling details about the
horrendously tough strictures put in place during the Taliban regime (in 1996, for example, they banned movies, TV AND music –
talk about hell on earth!). One of the first things to go, apparently, were beauty salons, which we find out the Afghan women kept
going in secret. Thus, when in August of 2003, after the rout of the Taliban, six hairdressers opened a beauty school in Kabul, no
wonder the women lined up for blocks to be among the first 20 chosen for training.
As the three month course continues we find out a bit about the teachers: Sima, who left the country to live in West Virginia 23 years
earlier and now has returned, Terri, a New Yorker and Patricia, the British accented head of the program. Patricia is the most
eloquent (she comments about the school after a few weeks in the country, “This is like an oasis in the middle of hell”) while Sima is
the most emotional (especially touching is her farewell speech before she returns to the U.S.). Interspersed are brief interviews with
the students who have apparently risked the wrath of their husbands to attend the school. Always, at the edge of the frame, are the
sullen, watchful men, suspicious of the women’s happiness, their American teachers, and crowding around the large uncurtained
windows of the school. Their disapproval is unspoken and overbearing – especially when given orders by the female American
teachers who don’t hesitate to speak their minds.
Then Debbie with the red spiked hair from Indiana arrives, and the film literally takes off. She immediately shakes things up,
challenging the complacent Afghan women in her opening speech, “It’s your job to set the new trends in hair styles!” and insisting
that Noor the school’s male manager curtain the windows for privacy. There are moments when Debbie’s know it all manner is tough
to take – her overbearing ways are easily interpreted as a prime example of Ugly Americanism. But the scales tip in her favor when
Debbie the pistol announces she isn’t about to let any man take away her driving privileges. The scene in which she zips around
Kabul with a car full of gleeful students oblivious to the derisive stares of the men she encounters is to understand the significance
of small victories which the salon represents.
Makes me long for a sequel also starring Debbie, this time demanding Afghan men set the new trends (of a different sort), and
named, appropriately – The Gay Bar of Kabul.
www.musicboxtheatre.com
Gimme Your Head with Hair:
The Beauty Academy of Kabul
4-12-06 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
The Beauty Academy of Kabul
4-12-06 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.